André (singer)

André Hovnanyan was born on July 8, 1979 in Stepanakert in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. André started singing at the age of three, using a chair as his first stage and his family as his first audience. Three years later he was enrolled into a musical school, where he began taking piano classes. Although a war was taking its toll on the country and its people, the only guiding light and hope for André was the music and his dream of singing. These events led him to write his first song "Prayer" at the early age of nine, showing his appreciation towards God. His professional singing career started at the age of 15 when he won the music contest Road to Renaissance. For the last few years, André has been the lead vocalist of the pop-jazz band Karabakh, with whom he has toured all over Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. He has participated in numerous music festivals in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the United States, winning many of them and finishing top three in a few others. He performed a track with Australian R&B/Pop Singer Samantha Jade titled Come Back.

In 2006 he was the first artist to represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest,[1] performing one of the 37 songs in Athens. There André sang "Without Your Love", a mixture between modern Western and traditional Armenian music. The song was composed by an Armenian celebrity, Armen Martirosyan, the conductor of the Armenian Jazz Orchestra. The instrumentation and arrangement was done by one of Armenian music business' most highly regarded persons, Ara Torosyan. The producer and director of the song and Andre's performance at Eurovision was Anush Hovnanyan. ARMTV presented their Eurovision Song Contest 2006 entry to the public on March 15, 2006. After qualifying through the semi-final André finished in 8th place in the competition with 129 points.

This is a list of the awards won by the Armenian singer André.

• 2001 – International music contest “Golden Skif” – Donetsk, Ukraine – The first runner-up
• 2001 – International music contest “Golden shlyager” – Mogilev, Belarus – Third runner-up
• 2002 – International music festival "Voice of Asia" – Almaty, Kazakhstan
• 2003 – International Youth music festival “Festos” – Moscow, Russia – Golden Diploma Award
• 2003 – Shanghai Asia International Music Festival - Shanghai, China – Excellent New Singer
• 2003 – Armenian Song of the Year – Moscow, Russia – The greatest contributor in Armenian Music
• 2003 – Best Song of the Year at Hit FM Radio for song “Antsa – gnatsi”
• 2004 – World Championships of Performing Arts – Hollywood, USA – 3 golden and 1 silver medals, is found "The Champion of the world"
• 2004 – Krunk pan-Armenian music festival – Yerevan, Armenia – Best singer of the year
• 2004 – “Golden Qnar” contest/festival – Yerevan, Armenia – Best Song of the Year “My love to you”
• 2005 – National Music awards – Best singer of the year
• 2005 – Los Angeles, USA – The Key of Glendale
• 2006 – Moscow, Russia – Person of the year
• 2006 – Tashir 2006 – Moscow, Russia – Prize "Avance"[2]
• 2006 – M Club Music awards – Kodak Theatre, Hollywood, USA – Best Male singer & Best Armenian International artist – The Varduhi Vardanyan Achievement Award[3]
• 2009 – Tashir 2009 – Moscow, Russia – Singer of Decade
• 2009 - Armenian music awards & M Club music awards - Nokia Theatre, USA - The ambassador of Armenian music

• Eurovision Song Contest 2006